6 Key Design Tips To Create A Sense Of Wellness In Your Home
As humans, you might say the need to connect with nature is in our DNA. This inherent human inclination to coexist with nature, known as biophilia, combines natural light, nature views, and even vegetation, and natural building materials to create an outdoor feel that we can enjoy indoors. It’s also a design trend that is rapidly gaining in popularity for homeowners across North America and throughout the world. When purposely designed, introducing various outdoor elements such as plants and natural lighting can create a connection with nature, which can impart numerous benefits to our health and well-being. In fact, research suggests that incorporating direct or indirect elements of nature into a home’s environment can lead to reduced stress, blood pressure levels, and heart rates, while increasing productivity, creativity, and a sense of calm within the home.
Now more than ever, we are spending more time at home. Our homes have become a place of refuge and safety. The opportunity to incorporate Biophilic design elements to create an environment that promotes wellness has moved beyond just a design trend, it is good for all of us and our well-being! Here are 6 key design tips to create a sense of wellness by connecting your home with nature and the outdoors.
Visually link the outdoors to your home’s indoor space.
Make a visual connection with nature through your windows. Large views of your backyard featuring beautiful plants, a fountain with running water, or just simply allowing natural light into your home can add to a sense of calm and well-being. Today’s homes often feature large sliding doors open to a backyard or patio. These views are a natural way to connect with the outdoors. While the views are enjoyable, connecting to the outdoors can at times create a challenge from glare, solar heat gain, and energy loss. Window size and location, along with exterior overhangs and ventilation can help address these concerns, but most often the simple solution is adding a shade to the window. Shades, such as roller shades, can help with glare and solar shades can help reduce heat gain. With the addition of ultra-quiet motorization, you can raise your motorized shades at the touch of a button using a remote control or your smart phone. You even have the added convenience of programming your window coverings to open or close at preferred times of the day, with some shades even having built-in temperature sensors for automated operation. In addition to eliminating glare and other unwanted side effects from natural light, when lowered, window coverings can induce a feeling of calm and tranquility.
Use earthy colors to create a sense of calm and connection with nature.
One of the simplest ways to bring the outdoors inside your home is through the use of colors and plants. By placing plants near windows and doors you can create natural transitions to outdoor spaces. Using suggestive imagery is also effective. Placing artwork of animals or pleasing landscapes near windows and other transition points interplays well with plants to create a welcome outdoor-like aesthetic. Natural, earthy colors, such as muted tans and greens, offer subtle echoes of natural outdoor landscapes. Budget Blinds has an array of colors, styles, and patterns, along with a collection of designer-inspired fabrics that can create the perfect design aesthetic for bringing the feeling of the outdoors into your home. With hundreds of decorative fabric options, from contemporary to classic, and in organic patterns and soft, earth tone colors, you are sure to find the perfect match for your décor. You can also choose from the latest sustainable materials, such as bamboo, reeds, jutes, and grasses, available in a variety of designs that can be integrated into the perfect customized window treatment.
Add natural shapes in your décor to create an appealing, calm feeling.
Have you noticed that design is getting way more organic lately? It seems nearly every shape in nature has become a design object. Organic designs often have a sculptural shape that makes them incredibly decorative. And it’s especially nice when an object that has a functional purpose also looks like a work of art. Organic designs are certainly more than just a beautiful aesthetic. Organic, natural design ties into a wider nature trend that values nature as a whole, takes inspiration from it, and brings it indoors, which also fits very well into the scope of biophilic design. For natural design shapes that echo the outdoors, start with these three natural shapes - rocks, branches, and leaves. For rocks, look for design elements that incorporate pebbles, stones, and smooth rocks. These might include creative lamp bases, coffee tables, or photo art. Branches can be seen in inventive, drapery hardware including finials featuring branches and leaf motifs, candle holders, or end tables. Leaves might include serving trays, wall art, or other interesting forms that are pleasing to the eye.
Use window treatments to enhance natural light while controlling glare and harmful UV
To help optimize natural lighting, consider motorized shades or motorized blinds from Budget Blinds, which, aside from letting in outdoor light, offer effortless convenience for enhancing your view to the outside. Plus, motorized shades and blinds provide improved child safety for homes with young children or pets. Additionally, motorized shades can be ordered in a variety of colors, styles and patterns, and their varying opacity levels let you determine the amount of natural light that comes into your room. Looking for yet another reason to explore motorized roller shades for your outdoor/indoor transition? Then think about the added level of privacy and UV protection you’ll enjoy, based on the opacity level of your shades. Yes, there are a host of reasons why motorized shades are a popular choice for connecting your home’s interior space with the outdoors!
Explore the calmness of sleek, minimalist lines.
Less is more may sound like a cliché, but with wellness design trends, minimalist design plays a key role. As a design movement, minimalism has been around since the late 1960s and early 1970s, particularly with American visual art and furniture design. In its most stripped-down definition, minimalism is about design which incorporates only the most essential and necessary elements of a product or subject by getting rid of any excess and, therefore, unnecessary components and features. Often Scandinavian Design, or minimalist design can mimic the organic nature of the outdoors, and can be defined by its simplicity, clean lines, and geometric use of shapes. It can also include the use of natural lighting and neutral colors. Another way to look at natural, minimalist design is through the lens of Japan’s traditional culture of Zen philosophy. When we say “Zen” in today’s terms, we often think of meditation and calm; however, in design terms, Zen is the epitome of minimalism.
Consider using designer-inspired accent touches like pillows and rugs.
Creating wellness through biophilic design can include complementing your connection to the outdoors by using pillows and area rugs. From throw pillows to matching decorative pillows, there’s no easier way to add a stylish look to a room. Budget Blinds has hundreds of colors and patterns to choose from that complement the natural beauty of the outdoors. Think about using soft greens that tie into plants and foliage, or earth tones that pair well with outdoor landscapes. And with our collection of exquisite accessory details, imparting your own sense of style to your interior space is both fun and affordable. Rugs are yet another popular solution that help to accent your outdoor vibe and can extend the life of your flooring while also providing a natural extension to your living space. Choose from a dazzling selection of natural materials, soft, pleasing organic patterns, colors and textures, that induce feelings of our natural world and the calm, tranquility that biophilic design has come to represent. Plus, at Budget Blinds we only work with top manufacturers, so you know you’re getting premium quality and a lasting value.
There’s no better time than now to connect the outdoors to your home’s interior space.
As you can see, it’s both fun and easy to renew your connection to nature and bring the natural world into your home. From the use of plants, stones, woods, and other natural materials - to selecting complementary colors, fabrics, and textures for window coverings, the principles of biophilic design can be combined to create a human-centered approach that offers numerous benefits to our health and well-being. At Budget Blinds, we are here to help you tie the outdoors to your home’s interior space, so click or call and let one of our local, highly trained design consultants schedule a complimentary in-home or virtual* consultation today!
